About 15 hours ago or so I was listening to Obama’s voice over the internet…online radio…

I was doing something else, nothing important really… I had returned from Japan a few days before, but somehow this time jetlag had hit me pretty hard despite having played such energetic shows over there…

Sometimes in the past I felt nothing, but this time it was like that scene in Fight Club in which Edward Norton layson the couch with his remote control, flicking through TV channels, suffering from insomnia. The only difference was that I had got rid of my TVset almost 10 years ago. I had three totally different books in front of me, couldn’t focus at all.

But when Obama came on, I suddenly felt a shot of adrenaline, I woke up. He was talking about how “Standard & Poor’s doubted our political system’s ability to act” – the US had been downgraded to an AA+ level. The debt level was increased, the problems far from solved. The information wasn’t what alerted me, it was the tone of his voice.

When Obama got elected, he convinced a whole generation just by speaking to them in a certain way, that democracy and capitalism will work out for everybody. We CAN change and improve things. Even though I come from a very different political standpoint and I am very aware of the power of the system, when it comes to the system changing individuals who tried to change it, I heard an honesty in this man’s voice which was rare amongst politicians. But suddenly what seemed to have changed mostly for me was his voice. It was the voice of a man who failed badly but out of respect for his listeners was performing a duty. The job of being President.

We live in a society which has no place for optimism anymore. It’s gone. Nobody wants to take the risk and predict a future, mainly because everybody feels powerless. Nobody even wants to take the responsibility and take matters into their own hands.

It’s stagnant. Establishments are regarded as fools. It is a constant battle between the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ and the ‘mob mentality’.

So while I was starting to feel like I was actually back in Berlin and awake, I looked outside the window, down on the street in which Atari Teenage Riot had played the peace demonstration on May 1st 1999. Thousands of people protested against Germany’s first involvement in an attack war since World War II. I remembered when I was on the microphone during a song and saw how the police beat into the, at that point, peaceful crowd. Of course the situation escalated, it’s all on film. Even though the images have become iconic and still give viewers the chills, but in my opinon they also tell a story of failure…

There is a long tradition in Berlin that the labor day, the 1st May ends in violence. In 1999 it was supposed to be different. The intent was to get across how serious people treat this issue of Germany sending their soldiers to war. The police failed, because they didn’t break up the crowd and things got out of hand. We all failed to get the real message across. The media had their images of violence, and basically a decade later, it seems perfectly ‘normal’ for German politicians to send troops into other countries.

Violence is always the result of people failing. Failing to communicate, failing to take responsibilities, failing to solve problems. Always.

Now the street in Berlin, Kreuzberg looks peaceful and quiet. Like it did a day before May 1st 1999 and the day after.

I turned back to my computer. The different news feeds were sending update after update. “Freddie Mac reports 2nd quarter loss, asks for $1.5B in federal aid”, “Bank of America now down -20.31%”, “Asia stocks fall after U.S. #stocks dive”, “Losses accelerating at Australian stock market; S&P/ASX200 index off 5%”

At the exact same time, more reports about looting in London, riots, clashes with police.

When European politicians discussed the crisis in Europe over the past weeks, you couldn’t help but get the impression that ‘the markets’ were some sort of wild untamable beast for them. One wrong word and bang, the swarm moving into another direction could destroy you. It makes people manipulate facts, makes people hide problems instead of solving them.

In situations of great stress and pressure most people just react to fear. When we want to understand the reasons for violence, we must look at fear first.

Once the snowball starts rolling, the destructive dynamic of it all can become so big, it takes a long time to heal and to repair the damage.

Vocalist Carl Crack sang in the Atari Teenage Riot song from 1993, an adaption of Sham 69′s ‘If the kids are united’ that

“the violence is a disease – it will become parts of our lives and our future if we don’t DO something against it! If we put our energies together it can be a very powerful era!”

The song was a reaction to the racist attacks by Neo-Nazis in reunified Germany which made most people call for more police, more laws, harder punishment. Carl was basically saying that we must act without waiting for the help of big brother government.

The link between Neo-Nazi ideology spreading and receiving more support and conservative right wing politics of the German government were clearly visible at the time.

There is a connection between mob, political leaders and those who do nothing and watch in apathy…

How often did we think about that in Germany since we were children? I can’t count it… How did Facism happen? How could people let it happen half a century ago? So when you constantly deal with the consequences of that history, you will always reach the point where you must think about the dangers and dynamics of the ‘mob mentality’.

It spreads like a virus, but make no mistake. When riots and violence occur they are always the result of those in power failing.

When a corrupt system falls apart, it never happens in a ‘controlled’ and ‘thoughtful’ way (apart from maybe GDR in 1989 which is almost a miracle in history). Real riots are not lead by intellectuals who read Marx, so don’t expect it.

But also don’t step into the mainstream media mouse trap:

The August riots in London have nothing to do with ‘anarchy’, they are the fruits of capitalism and the consequences of government decisions.

If you think ‘mindless thugs’ have ‘nothing to do with society’ and your part in it, you might be part of the problem.

To make it clear: I don’t justify or judge anything. I am saying there will be more because the system doesn’t work anymore.

I don’t think in terms of morals, wrong and right. So when this stuff happens, it is EVERYBODY’s fault. mine, yours, theirs.

It is frustrating how some people let politicians & bankers set fire to whole countries’ economies and their future but now are in shock of the results. People who commented were speaking as if a natural, unexpected disaster came over them, one that they didn’t have any control over or could have not prevented.

I know everybody got used to torture & war during the Bush years. But here is a reminder: Violence is ALWAYS a failure and a sign of when things go very wrong.

Reading opinions of other music fans from the UK I realized during that quiet night in Berlin, that people repeated commentaries of mainstream media, but disguised them as their own opinions.

The reporters kept repeating the same words over and over again: Mindless violence.

You got the impression that either this was decided before they arrived at the scenery or they kept copying and pasting from each other.

What struck me is how they made “mindless violence” sound like a crime in such a way that you ended up suggesting that “thoughtful violence” is justified in our society.

I lean back and read Wikileaks Twitter “The BBC can interview the Taliban, but is apparently incapable of a single meaningful interview with a London protester. “protesters” or “rioters”, there are no interviews, but endless pathetic commentary.”

It makes me think… Why do people divide between rioters and protestors? Aren’t those as ‘guilty’ who stood by and watched how a whole generation of young people were put into a corner where there is absolutely no way forward anymore? Morally is there a difference between a corporation which pays workers overseas pretty much nothing for manufacturing trainers and teenagers who steal them?

Who is attacking your property more? The looters who throw a brick into your window or the government who lends so much money that your children won’t be able to pay off the debts?

I keep reading….

Oh yes, the first voices as expected, demanding more police & higher budgets for police …while cuts in education were totally ok just a few months ago.

Having more police on the street can only be a reaction to violence, while EDUCATION PREVENTS violence. (As logically as it sounds to us, it is a threat to some in power because then the whole passive consumer business model doesn’t work anymore)

All these things are connected.

There’s a unified axis of government and corporate power, lawless and unrestrained. That’s what we should talk about. Corporations exploit the power of the state to further enhance their power and the real criminals get away. There’s a class war going on… And it’s the rich who are waging it.

Our society has a huge problem to solve. Let’s identify it properly and understand it so we can start acting because “praying for london” won’t do it….

Significations & Social Imaginary in the 21st Century

At any moment each of us are surrounded by an infinite array of unique possibilities and events that, when taken together as a whole, appear to form a cohesive world view about society and our role within it. Whether high-and-mighty or low-and-lowly, a myriad of surreptitious relations shape our precarious existence in the 21st Century. Relations such as class rule, racism, sexism, and authoritarianism manifest themselves in old and new ways.

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. These are, revolutionary times...

Worsening social and material conditions, economic decay, mass uprisings across Mideast, North African, and European countries, the undeniable power of new technologies such as WikiLeaks, Facebook, Twitter, and other online and mobile media (for better or worse), the threat of ecological disaster, and the social transformations unfolding in Latin America -- all combine to make this century dramatically different from the last. These are today's activated revolutionary forces that will shape our future -- and be shaped by us -- whether we are conscious of it or not. The timeless goal of a society organized around autonomy, classlessness, self-management, mutual-aid, solidarity, and diversity is yet to be realized once and for all.

Our task is to imagine those structures and relations that can deliver these desired outcomes, drawing from past and present examples, and offer a new world view outlining what is possible -- to figure out how to self-consciously move from today's world into the instauration (or original creation) of an autonomous project for a participatory society that transforms all spheres of life.

This website will use media, (pop and non-pop) culture, commentary, art, analysis, theory, criticism, entertainment, and current events to explore this purpose. Content will be published daily and weekly, up to the minute and, with modern technologies, up to the moment.